Manado

[Mikimaru]

I can't comment on the weather in December, but I was in Manado/Bunaken in April and the weather was great. A group of us stayed at the Santika Resort and dove with Thalassa Dive Centre, which is based at the hotel. Thalassa is managed by a European, and the local dive guides were very good. While there was plenty of big stuff to see including turtles, whitetip and blacktip reef sharks, the guides were quick to point out the less visible stuff including ghost pipefish, ribbon eels, stonefish, frogfish etc. They have one modern fiberglass dive boat for longer day trips, and several traditional wooden boats for nearby dive sites. The dive sites are definitely world-class !

The hotel is nice with a good choice of both Indonesian and international cuisine. The rooms are modern and clean. We stayed at the cottages nearer the dive shop. Mid-week we virtually had the place to ourselves, with more staff than guests !

I believe the link for Thalassa is: http://www.thalassa.net

Good luck !
Miki.

 

[orca]

Guys... thanks for the information...

Just one last bit of question... how many days you think I should spend on Bunaken/Manado & Lembeh Straits? I'll most probably have about 4~5 days for diving

 

[Mikimaru]

A lifetime. . .

I'd have to check my log book but I think I did 18 dives in five days. Thalassa has about 45 dive sites they visit. I never made it to the Lembeh Strait, but I'm not disappointed. One more reason to go back !

 

[orca]

Mikimaru once bubbled...
A lifetime. . .

I'd have to check my log book but I think I did 18 dives in five days. Thalassa has about 45 dive sites they visit. I never made it to the Lembeh Strait, but I'm not disappointed. One more reason to go back !

If I have unlimited supply of $$$ ;-0, I wouldn't even have to ask all these silly questions... Just go there and experienced it myself ;-0

So will have to make do with a few day there ;-0

Better than nothing, right?

 

[YCW]

Orca,

The August-September issue of Scuba Diver magazine has a feature on a photographer, Constantinos Petrinos, and some of his work on Lembeh Strait, including the cover shot of an octopus inside a seashell. The photos and write ups are all about Lembeh strait and they are really amazing . You may want to take a look at the magazine before you decide how many days you want to stay. Like Mikimaru said, staying 4 to 5 days............ Hm, for you info, Constantinos spent 5 months at Lembeh Strait!

Enjoy!

 

[orca]

YCW once bubbled...
Orca,

The August-September issue of Scuba Diver magazine has a feature on a photographer, Constantinos Petrinos, and some of his work on Lembeh Strait, including the cover shot of an octopus inside a seashell. The photos and write ups are all about Lembeh strait and they are really amazing . You may want to take a look at the magazine before you decide how many days you want to stay. Like Mikimaru said, staying 4 to 5 days............ Hm, for you info, Constantinos spent 5 months at Lembeh Strait!

Enjoy!

;-0 my pocket is not deep enough to last me that long in one place ;-0

I'll have to make do with just 4~5 days

but surprisingly, a dive operator just reverted to my friend that it's not worth to stay more than 2~3 days in Lembeh "unless you are fanatical photographers"; and seriously I'm not

 

[neve]

Hi,

I recently found an article on Lembeh Straites/Kungkungan Bay written by Ken Knezick.... I found it to be very informative and it kidn of convinced me not to go to Lembeh I would go only if I'm into photography (which I'm not). Well, the article is here and here's a short writeup of how to get there:

On the leeward coast of North Sulawesi, a tiny, crooked road runs northwest of Bitung, shadowing the edge of Lembeh Strait for a few kilometers before coming to a stop at a secluded black sand beach on Kungkungan Bay. A beautifully designed restaurant, glassed on all sides, perches out over the bay. Just offshore are the grassy knolls and chalk cliffs of the Serena Islands, and behind them rises the forested ridge of Lembeh Island. Beneath the calm waters that surround these islands lies one of the richest marine environments in the world.
Diving Lembeh: Rising almost to the surface, rock pinnacles are lush with soft corals and swirling with jacks and massive, vertical schools of barracuda. The bowl of an old lava flow, ringed by jagged black rock, is crowded with delicate coral and the rare, jewel-like mandarin fish. A newly discovered wreck is exquisitely encrusted and alive with fish, octopus, and colorful invertebrates. And an inshore reef, beginning in just inches of water in front of the resort, is filled with unusual scorpionfish, sand eels, cuttlefish, frogfish, nudibranchs, and a seemingly endless array of other treasures. We repeat, KBR is a macro photographer's paradise!

Kungkungan Bay Resort is built on the site of an old coconut plantation, on the quiet side of North Sulawesi, away from the busy city of Manado and the crowds of divers at Bunaken. Because it sits right on the water, the resort is almost always blessed by a cooling breeze, and diving conditions are good all year round. Whether you come for the superb diving, to hike in the nearby nature reserve, or simply to relax, you will find Kungkungan Bay Resort a delightful and enticing holiday retreat.

Getting to Kungkungan Bay Resort - International flights connect from Los Angeles to Singapore or Bali. From there fly Silk Air or Merpati to Manado. Dive package includes transfer from Manado airport to the resort. Contact Island Dreams for more information. And do it now...KBR has quickly become so popular, that it DOES sell out.

Jet service between Singapore and Manado operates Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday on award-winning Singapore Airlines (and its subsidiary Silk Air). You'll enjoy superior jet service (and two checked bags at 66 pounds each) all the way. The KBR program includes lodging and diving as indicated, hotel tax, airport transfers, and 3 meals daily.

Package Pricing - KBR offers a flexible pricing system, allowing you to have 2, 3, or 4 boat dives per day. The Kungkungan program includes round-trip airport transfers from Manado Airport, lodging as indicated, hotel tax, 3 meals daily, and your choice of diving options. Basically the cost is $35 per boat dive, with a maximum of four boat dives per day possible. Unlimited shore diving is provide for every day that you also purchase some boat diving.

I hope this helps.

 

[Erwin Kodiat]

Neve,
I just came back from North Sulawesi. I dove Lembeh twice, as far as I can tell this is one of my most memorable diving. I have seen a lot of strange things (although I'm not a photographer). Green leaf scorpionfish, Sea horse, Pygmy sea horse,
Banded pipefish, Harlequin ghost pipefish, Devil scorpionfish,
Stone fish, blue ring octopus and little sea moth (pegasus). They are all encountered only in 2 dives. There are another 5 dive sites there, I guess you could find many interested things then.
If you want to read complete report on my Bunaken 2003 trip, please visit this

neve once bubbled...
Hi,

I recently found an article on Lembeh Straites/Kungkungan Bay written by Ken Knezick.... I found it to be very informative and it kidn of convinced me not to go to Lembeh I would go only if I'm into photography (which I'm not).....

 

[Indah]

Hello Erwin,
Good to read you liked Lembeh Strait. But it is a pity you missed the other 33 divesites. Lembeh really offers much more than muck and critter diving. What about 4 very nice, not too deep shipwrecks? The eagle rays, sharks, tunas's and so on of Batu Kapal? The coral garden of Pulau Putus. The......
And since there are four divecenter now in Lembeh Strait the diving can be done much more comfortable than by watertaxi.
Both KBR, Lembeh Resort, SDQ and our Divers Lodge Lembeh have diveguides who now the Strait as their homes.
See alsoZubi's pages and Divers Lodge Lembeh
By the way, heard that Tulamben and Secret Bay on your island are great aswell for critters?

Bye, Rob Sinke

 

[gyselle]

I have a choice of staying at either bunaken or lembeh, which should i stay at?

I would probably take a day trip to the site which i do not stay at, but just would like to know which is "better"

Thanks